How to Make and Freeze Homemade Pumpkin Purée

Halloween pumpkins – big, bright and beautiful.  And, yes they’re edible! Just look at this gorgeous homemade pumpkin purée.

Also Read: Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Spice Pudding, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars, Pumpkin Scones, Fruit Rollups, Orange Pumpkin Loaf and Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Registered Dietitian Leslie Beck explains, pumpkins are “a good source of fibre, vitamins A and C, folate, potassium, and phosphorus.  Like other orange-colored vegetables and fruits, pumpkins are very high in the antioxidant beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A.”

Those big pumpkins may not be as sweet and flavorful as the smaller “sugar pumpkins” or “pie pumpkins”, but you can still use those big pumpkins to add flavor and nutrients to roasted veggies soups, loaves, lattes and pies.

But a word of caution, if they’ve been carved into Jack ‘o Lanterns, don’t eat ’em.  Within two hours of being carved, they become a haven for pathogens that make them no longer safe to eat.  Add to that the soot released from a burning candle and those pumpkins are more dangerous than a herd (??) of zombies!

How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Purée or Any Squash Purée

To make your own pumpkin purée, pumpkins need to be cooked, cooled, scraped or peeled, and puréed.  The purée can be frozen and used for up to a year.

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How to Make Pumpkin or Squash Purée

The following technique can be used for large pumpkins, pie pumpkins and any other kind of winter squash.

Prep : 10 minutes mins

Cook : 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Author: Getty Stewart

Ingredients

• 1 Pumpkin or Squash

Instructions

• Wash the Pumpkin or Squash
• Cut Pumpkin/Squash in Half

  Use a big serrated knife to saw through the pumpkin.  Cut on one side of the stem to avoid having to cut through it.
• Scoop out the Seeds and Strings

  Save the seeds for roasting later.  Check out the post on How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds. All winter squash seeds can be roasted and eaten.
• Bake the Pumpkin/Squash Halves

  Place pumpkin halves (or quarters if your pumpkin is super big) on a cookie sheet.

  Add ¼" of water onto the pan. Bake at 180° C (350° F) oven until tender, about 60-90 minutes.
• Scoop out the Flesh

  Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to scrape out the flesh.  Sometimes, the skin is so loose, that it’s actually easier to peel the skin off rather than scrape the flesh out.
• Drain and Puree the Pumpkin

  You can mash the pumpkin with a potato masher, put it through a food mill or puree it with an immersion blender or food processor.

  Pumpkin can be very watery, so be sure the pieces are well drained after cooking, then drain the puree again before storing. To drain, use a fine sieve, a colander lined with a coffee filter or a jelly bag and let sit for an hour or so after pureeing.

  (Squash like kabocha, buttercup, hubbard and butternut are less liquidy and likely don’t need to be drained).
• Use or Freeze 

  Chances are you’ll get way more puree than you can use up right away.  No problem, pumpkin puree will freeze for up to a year.  

  Place pre-measured amounts in freezer bags, so you can pull out and thaw just the amount you need. I froze mine in one cup packages. By spreading the puree really thin and evenly, it freezes faster, stores flat in the freezer and thaws quickly.

Notes

Note: For the 7lb pumpkin shown in the following photos, I ended up with 6 cups of puree.

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Course: preserving

Keyword: pumpkin puree, squash